Roflumilast inhibits tumor growth and migration in STK11/LKB1 deficient pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumor of the digestive system. It is highly aggressive, easily metastasizes, and extremely difficult to treat. This study aimed to analyze the genes that might regulate pancreatic cancer migration to provide an essential basis for the prognostic assessment of pancreatic cancer and individualized treatment. A CRISPR knockout library directed against 915 murine genes was transfected into TB 32047 cell line to screen which gene loss promoted cell migration. Next-generation sequencing and PinAPL.py- analysis was performed to identify candidate genes. We then assessed the effect of serine/threonine kinase 11 (STK11) knockout on pancreatic cancer by wound-healing assay, chick agnosia (CAM) assay, and orthotopic mouse pancreatic cancer model. We performed RNA sequence and Western blotting for mechanistic studies to identify and verify the pathways. After accelerated Transwell migration screening, STK11 was identified as one of the top candidate genes. Further experiments showed that targeted knockout of STK11 promoted the cell migration and increased liver metastasis in mice. Mechanistic analyses revealed that STK11 knockout influences blood vessel morphogenesis and is closely associated with the enhanced expression of phosphodiesterases (PDEs), especially PDE4D, PDE4B, and PDE10A. PDE4 inhibitor Roflumilast inhibited STK11-KO cell migration and tumor size, further demonstrating that PDEs are essential for STK11-deficient cell migration. Our findings support the adoption of therapeutic strategies, including Roflumilast, for patients with STK11-mutated pancreatic cancer in order to improve treatment efficacy and ultimately prolong survival.

Role of deubiquitinase JOSD2 in the pathogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a deadly malignancy with limited treatment options. Deubiquitinases (DUBs) have been confirmed to play a crucial role in the development of malignant tumors. JOSD2 is a DUB involved in controlling protein deubiquitination and influencing critical cellular processes in cancer.

AIM

To investigate the impact of JOSD2 on the progression of ESCC.

METHODS

Bioinformatic analyses were employed to explore the expression, prognosis, and enriched pathways associated with JOSD2 in ESCC. Lentiviral transduction was utilized to manipulate JOSD2 expression in ESCC cell lines (KYSE30 and KYSE150). Functional assays, including cell proliferation, colony formation, drug sensitivity, migration, and invasion, were performed, revealing the impact of JOSD2 on ESCC cell lines. JOSD2's role in xenograft tumor growth and drug sensitivity in vivo was also assessed. The proteins that interacted with JOSD2 were identified using mass spectrometry.

RESULTS

Preliminary research indicated that JOSD2 was highly expressed in ESCC tissues, which was associated with poor prognosis. Further analysis demonstrated that JOSD2 was upregulated in ESCC cell lines compared to normal esophageal cells. JOSD2 knockdown inhibited ESCC cell activity, including proliferation and colony-forming ability. Moreover, JOSD2 knockdown decreased the drug resistance and migration of ESCC cells, while JOSD2 overexpression enhanced these phenotypes. In vivo xenograft assays further confirmed that JOSD2 promoted tumor proliferation and drug resistance in ESCC. Mechanistically, JOSD2 appears to activate the MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. Mass spectrometry was used to identify crucial substrate proteins that interact with JOSD2, which identified the four primary proteins that bind to JOSD2, namely USP47, IGKV2D-29, HSP90AB1, and PRMT5.

CONCLUSION

JOSD2 plays a crucial role in enhancing the proliferation, migration, and drug resistance of ESCC, suggesting that JOSD2 is a potential therapeutic target in ESCC.

Sesamol Attenuates Scopolamine-Induced Cholinergic Disorders, Neuroinflammation, and Cognitive Deficits in Mice

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease, characterized by memory loss and cognitive deficits accompanied by neuronal damage and cholinergic disorders. Sesamol, a lignan component in sesame oil, has been proven to have neuroprotective effects. This research aimed to investigate the preventive effects of sesamol on scopolamine (SCOP)-induced cholinergic disorders in C57BL/6 mice. The mice were pretreated with sesamol (100 mg/kg/d, p.o.) for 30 days. Behavioral tests indicated that sesamol supplement prevented SCOP-induced cognitive deficits. Sesamol enhanced the expression of neurotrophic factors and postsynaptic density (PSD) in SCOP-treated mice, reversing neuronal damage and synaptic dysfunction. Importantly, sesamol could balance the cholinergic system by suppressing the AChE activity and increasing the ChAT activity and M1 mAChR expression. Sesamol treatment also inhibited the expression of inflammatory factors and overactivation of microglia in SCOP-treated mice. Meanwhile, sesamol improved the antioxidant enzyme activity and suppressed oxidative stress in SCOP-treated mice and ameliorated the oxidized cellular status and mitochondrial dysfunction in SCOP-treated SH-SY5Y cells. In conclusion, these results indicated that sesamol attenuated SCOP-induced cognitive dysfunction via balancing the cholinergic system and reducing neuroinflammation and oxidative stress.

An m5C methylation regulator-associated signature predicts prognosis and therapy response in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most aggressive digestive malignancy due to frequent late-stage diagnosis, rapid progression and resistance to therapy. With increasing PDAC incidence worldwide, there is an urgent need for new prognostic biomarkers and therapy targets. Recently, RNA methylation has emerged as a new tumorigenic mechanism in different cancers. 5-methylcytosine (m5C) is one of the most frequent RNA modifications and occurs on a variety of RNA species including mRNA, thereby regulating gene expression. Here we investigated the prognostic role of m5C-regulator-associated transcriptional signature in PDAC. We evaluated m5C-regulator status and expression in 239 PDAC samples from publicly available datasets. We used unsupervised consensus clustering analyses to classify PDACs based on m5C-regulator expression. From the resulting signature of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), we selected prognosis-relevant DEGs to stratify patients and build a scoring signature (m5C-score) through LASSO and multivariate Cox regression analyses. The m5C-score represented a highly significant independent prognostic marker. A high m5C-score correlated with poor prognosis in different PDAC cohorts, and was associated with the squamous/basal subtype as well as activated cancer-related pathways including Ras, MAPK and PI3K pathways. Furthermore, the m5C-score correlated with sensitivity to pathway-specific inhibitors of PARP, EGFR, AKT, HER2 and mTOR. Tumors with high m5C-score were characterized by overall immune exclusion, low CD8⁺ T-cell infiltration, and higher PD-L1 expression. Overall, the m5C-score represented a robust predictor of prognosis and therapy response in PDAC, which was associated with unfavorable molecular subtypes and immune microenvironment.

AB0053 LncRNA NUTM2A-AS1 ALLEVIATED OSTEOARTHRITIS BY REGULATING miR-183-5p/TGFA PATHWAY

Background

Osteoarthritis(OA) is a common comorbidity in the elderly, characterized by articular cartilage degeneration, hyperosteogeny and synovitis. Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) have been shown to be involved in several human diseases, including OA. However, the effect of NUTM2A-AS1 on chondrocytes remains unknown.

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of LncRNA NUTM2A-AS1 in OA pathological changes in vitro.

Methods

Chondrocyte cells were treated for 24 hours to mimic OA pathological conditions. The experimental center used chondrocytes with interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) Intervention to simulate the pathological state of OA.The expression levels of LncRNA NUTM2A-AS1, miR-183-5p and TGFA mRNA were detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), along with CCK-8 to determine cell viability. Inflammatory response was assessed by determining the release of pro-inflammatory factors such as TNF-α and IL-6 using ELISA kits. Cell apoptosis was examined by flow cytometry assay. The binding relationship between miR-183-5p and LncRNA NUTM2A-AS1 or TGFA was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay.

Results

IL-1β induced chondrocytes to express LncRNA NUTM2A-AS1 and TGFA, and the miR-183-5p expression was decreased in IL-1β-treated cells. Low expression of LncRNA NUTM2A-AS1 or TGFA mitigated IL-1β-caused chondrocyte viability reduction and apoptosis promotion. miR-183-5p overexpression alleviated IL-1β-mediated chondrocyte apoptosis and inflammatory injury via decreasing TGFA expression. In addition, our work revealed that miR-183-5p is a target of LncRNA NUTM2A-AS1. Rescue experiments showed that TGFA overexpression could reverse the effects of low expression of LncRNA NUTM2A-AS1 on the pathological changes in IL-1β-induced chondrocytes.

Conclusion

Low expression of LncRNA NUTM2A-AS1 significantly mitigated the chondrocytes damage induced by IL-1β through regulating miR-183-5p/TGFA axis, which might be an important target to regulate the promotion of OA.

References

[1]Kong H, Sun ML, Zhang XA, Wang XQ. Crosstalk Among circRNA/lncRNA, miRNA, and mRNA in Osteoarthritis[J]. Front Cell Dev Biol, 2021, 9:77437

Disclosure of Interests

None declared

POS0055 TNF-α REGULATION OF mir-29b EXPRESSION IN CD14+PBMs AND ITS RELEASE OF PROINFLAMMATORY CYTOKINES IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Background

It was found that the expression of mir-29b was significantly up-regulated in PBMs, and we tried to clarify TNF- α The production of proinflammatory cytokines was increased by inducing the overexpression of mir-29b in CD14 +PBMs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and by using TNF-α that the expression of mir-29b was significantly urapy to reverse regulate mir-29b, and carry out relevant experiments to verify our scientific research hypothesis.

Objectives

By observing patients with RA treated with TNF-α significantly urapy to reverse regulate mir-29b, and carry out relevant experimenperipheral blood mononuclear cells (CD14+PBMs) and releases pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Methods

(1) Cell experiment: PBM cells from RA patients were collected and extracted for CD14+ cell expression labeling. Different doses of TNF-α blood mononuclear c500 ng/ml) were used for intervention. Meanwhile, the expression of mir-29b was analyzed by rt-qpcr at the level of TNF-α100 ng/ml for different periods of time (0,6,12,24h). In addition, the supernatant of cell culture was collected and human cytokines IL-1α, IL-1β, TNFα, IL-6, IFN-α and IL-8 were measured using a V-plex human cytokine 30-plex kit. (2)Grouping experiment of clinical intervention: 21 patients with RA diagnosis and 15 healthy volunteers were divided into three groups. TNF-α inhibitor group: RA patients treated with TNF-α inhibitor were collected (n=15); IL-6 monoclonal antibody group: RA patients treated with tocilizumab (n=6); Control group: healthy volunteers (n=15) were used as normal controls. PBMc was extracted from TNF-α inhibitor group for 6 months, IL-6 monoclonal antibody group for 6 months, and control group, respectively, to observe the difference of Mir-29b expression in CD14+PBMs of the three groups.

Results

The expression of miR-29b was dose-dependent and time-dependent with the incubation of TNF-α, and there was a significant difference (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the overexpression of miR-29b also led to an increase in the expression levels of a wide range of chemokines and proinflammatory cytokines (including IL-1α, IL-1β, TNFα, IL-6, IFN-α and IL-8) (P < 0.05). The expression of miR-29b in RA patients treated with TNF-α inhibitor was significantly reduced compared with that treated with Totuzumab (P<0.05).

Conclusion

TNF-α inflammatory factors can induce the overexpression of miR-29b in RA patients, and then producing a large number of proinflammatory cytokines, which can aggravate the inflammation mechanism of RA. In RA patients, TNF-α inhibitors may partially reduce the inflammatory response through the TNF-α/CD14+PBMs/ Mir-29b signaling pathway. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the expression of Mir-29b in TNF-α and CD14+PBMs in clinical practice, which may accurately indicate the state of immune disease in patients, and provide a basis for more accurate judgment of prognosis and the course of immunotherapy, as well as optimization of immunotherapy programs.

References

[1]Long L, Yu P, Liu Y, et al. Upregulated microRNA-155 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and fibroblast-like synoviocytes in rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Dev Immunol. 2013;2013:296139.

Disclosure of Interests

None declared

Alternate-day fasting alleviates diabetes-induced glycolipid metabolism disorders: roles of FGF21 and bile acids

Glycolipid metabolism disorder is one of the causes of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Alternate-day fasting (ADF) is an effective dietary intervention to counteract T2D. The present study is aimed to determine the underlying mechanisms of the benefits of ADF metabolic on diabetes-induced glycolipid metabolism disorders in db/db mice. Here, leptin receptor knock-out diabetic mice were subjected to 28 days of isocaloric ADF. We found that ADF prevented insulin resistance and bodyweight gain in diabetic mice. ADF promoted glycogen synthesis in both liver and muscle. ADF also activated recombinant insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1)/protein kinase B (AKT/PKB) signaling，inactivated inflammation related AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and the inflammation-regulating nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) signaling in the liver. ADF also suppressed lipid accumulation by inactivating the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) and sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c). Furthermore, ADF elevated the expression of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) and down-stream signaling AMPK/silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog 1 (SIRT1)/peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1α) in the liver of diabetic mice. The mitochondrial biogenesis and autophagy were also stimulated by ADF. Interestingly, ADF also enhanced the bile acids (BAs) metabolism by generating more cholic acid (CA), deoxycholic acid (DCA) and tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) in db/db mice. In conclusion, ADF could significantly inhibit T2D induced insulin resistance and obesity, promote insulin signaling，reduce inflammation, as well as promote glycogen synthesis and lipid metabolism. It possibly depends on FGF21 and BA metabolism to enhance mitochondrial biosynthesis and energy metabolism.

Immunoblot analysis of a 10 kDa antigen in cyst fluid of Taenia solium metacestodes

The diagnostic value of a 10 kDa subunit of 150 kDa protein in cyst fluid (CF) of Taenia solium metacestodes was evaluated. Immunoblot analysis revealed that most sera from patients with neurocysticercosis recognized the 10 kDa subunit strongly (209/217 cases, 84.6%), while a few sera from individuals with other parasitic diseases including alveolar echinococcosis (AE, 2/20, 10%) and cystic echinococcosis (CE, 2/25, 8%) showed faint reactions. Sera of cases with other parasitic diseases, especially AE and CE, exhibited cross reactions against other bands in CF. Both differential immunoblot and immunoprecipitation analyses showed that the 10 kDa subunit was the most specific to cysticercosis and highly antigenic, whereas other components at 20-40, 64, 95 and 106 kDa in CF were cross-reactive. IgG subclass ELISA and immunoblot demonstrated that both IgG4 and IgG1 reactions were predominant in neurocysticercosis and recognized the 10 kDa.

Designing manufacturing and the clinic application of the prosthesis for the patients with large ocular defects

PURPOSE

To design and manufacture the prosthesis of external type for patients with ocular large defects.

METHODS

Silicon and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) were chosen the chief materials: The main procedures are: taking the impression, color mixture, making primitive form of the prosthesis, modification and fixation.

RESULTS

Fifty patients with large ocular defects took the prosthesis, the cosmetic results are satisfactory. All the patients give satisfactory comments on the 5 main indexes: color 90%, stereo-feeling 100%, peripheral difference 86%, fidelity 98% and fixation 86%.

CONCLUSIONS

To make ocular prosthesis, materials with good quality and complicated technology are needed. The prosthesis made by silicon combined with PMMA show good results. Among the procedures of making prosthesis, color mixture and fixation are the most important.